Social Justice in an Open World: The Role of the United Nations
Chapter 1
Dimensions of international justice and social justice 1.l International justice: legal and developmental aspects The Charter of the United Nations makes no explicit distinction between international justice, or justice among nations, and social justice, or justice among people. The Charter, of which the Statute of the International Court of Justice is an integral part, treats justice as a broad principle that ought to be applied in international relations. In the Preamble and Article 1 of the Charter, justice is associated with respect for international law. In Article 2, justice is linked to the sovereign equality of all Members and to the maintenance of peace and security. The references to peace and the equality of nations imply that each State should refrain from any use of force that may jeopardize or undermine the territorial integrity or political independence of another. Another implication is that the United Nations should not intervene in matters that are "essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any State" (Article 2, para. 7 ) ,except to enforce measures adopted by the Security Council in line with the provisions set out in Chapter VII of the Charter.6The "one country, one vote" rule in the General Assembly is a visible manifestation of the Organization's recognition of sovereign equality. The concept of justice as defined above will be referred to in the present text as international justice, with the principles of sovereign equality, non-intervention, and equal voting rights constituting the legal aspects of international justice. By the mid-1960s another dimension of international justice had taken shape with the decolonization of a number of countries. The United Nations assumed increasing responsibility for helping these newly independent Member States in their efforts to achieve economic and social progress. Gradually the concept of development was substituted for the early emphasis on progress and evolved into a core component of the Organization's mandate. International cooperation for development was placed next to the maintenance of peace and security as a second pillar upon which the activities of the United Nations were based, the main objective being to narrow and ultimately close the gap between developed and developing countries. Efforts relating to this goal of bridging the distance separating poor and affluent nations are identified here as representing the developmental aspects of international justice.
1.2 Social justice: a recent and politically charged concept The concept of social justice and its relevance and application within the present context require a more detailed explanation. As mentioned previously, the notion of social justice is relatively new. None of history's great philosophers-not Plato